Date and Time

Location

Description

"The Urban Resilience Network: 'TURN' to Faith Leaders and the Faith Community to Address Violence & Trauma"

Pastor Chris Harris

Bright Star Church, Chicago

Pastor Harris leads Bright Star Church (www.BrightStarChurchChicago.com) in Chicago’s Bronzeville Community and has ministered in over 24 countries singing Gospel and Jazz.

He is founder of Bright Star Community Outreach (www.BrightStarCommunityOutreach.com) a 501c3 dedicated to youth & family anti-violence programs. He has developed the TURN Center (The Urban Resilience Network) based on the Israeli model of NATAL in Tel Aviv. TURN endeavors to focus on five core competencies: counseling, parenting, mentorship, work-force development and advocacy. Its unique model will utilize faith and community leaders as trauma counselors and use community surveys as the basis for services that directly correspond to the unique needs of constituents.

Its end-to-end approach offers a replicable, evidenced-based template for risk assessment and program evaluation. Although the TURN Center will sit in Bronzeville; it will serve Chicago as a whole, and our ultimate goal is to replicate this model across the United States in other traumatized communities. BCSO’s partners in this effort are: Northwestern Medicine, University of Chicago Medicine, United Way of Metropolitan Chicago, and Sinai Community Institute and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and now CIGNA to name a few. This community impact project has received more than $7 Million dollars of support thus far. One of the most exciting things for BSCO is their Greater Bronzeville Community Action Plan where more than 50 Bronzeville organizations are partnering to make a community level impact on violence and trauma.

Pastor Harris has served as National Council Member of AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee) and is the Chairman of the Bronzeville Community Action Council. He is also a member of the University of Chicago Medicine (UCM) Community Advisory Council and has served as President of the 4th Ward & Cook County Clergy Coalitions.